By Shantelle Williams-Valadié, BOLD ERG Chair and Associate Director, University Partnerships, Coursera In the 1968 Olympics, medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos punched defiant fists into the summer air, decrying oppression of Black communities in the country whose colors they wore on their tracksuits. The act seized the world of sports and was widely condemned […]
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Has Section 230 Created a ‘Vast Web of Vengeance’?
Slashdot reader GatorSnake shares “Another take of the implications of Section 230… One person poisoned the online personas of multiple people who had ‘wronged’ her, with it being nearly impossible to have the false accusations removed from the sites or from Google’s search results.” The New York Times reports:
Mr. Babcock, a software engineer, got off the phone and Googled himself. The…
Can Chatbots Simulate Conversations with Dead People?
The author of the book Online Afterlives describes the unusual projects of people like Eugenia Kuyda, co-founder of Luka, an AI-powered chat simulator that books restaurant reservations and makes recommendations. Kuyda worked with computer scientists to convert several thousand text messages between deceased tech entrepreneur Roman Mazurenko and his friends and relatives into a chatbot simulation: “How are you there?” asks…
Amazon To Expand Its Childhood-To-Career CS Program To India Later This Year
theodp writes: According to an Amazon job listing for a contract position, the e-tailer is seeking a lead for a new Amazon Future Engineer program in India that’s set to launch in 2021. “The initial research for Amazon Future Engineer in India,” Amazon explains, “is currently underway and we look to the chosen candidate to dive deep into operationalizing the program…
The surprising truth about why adults make children believe in Santa
Children are savvier than we thought, so why do so many of them believe in Father Christmas? Answering that question reveals a lot about child psychology, and even more about adults Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833132-600-the-surprising-truth-about-why-adults-make-children-believe-in-santa/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
To recreate delicious meals, don’t treat recipes simply as algorithms
Recreating the delicious meals of my youth involves balancing the algorithms of online recipes against my recollection of watching my father cook, says Annalee Newitz Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833130-800-to-recreate-delicious-meals-dont-treat-recipes-simply-as-algorithms/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
John le Carre, Author of Spy Novels, Dies at Age 89
“This terrible year has claimed a literary giant and a humanitarian spirit,” tweeted novelist Stephen King, adding later that “The Little Drummer Girl was one of the best novels I’ve ever read.” Margaret Atwood tweeted “His Smiley novels are key to understanding the mid-20th century.” And the Associated Press tells the story of how spy-novel writer John le Carré was “drawn…
Darth Vader Actor From Original ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Dies at Age 85
Reuters reports: David Prowse, the English actor who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films, has died aged 85, his management company said on Sunday… The champion weightlifter-turned-actor starred as the body, but not the voice, of one of cinema’s best-known villains. Director George Lucas opted to dub another voice onto Prowse’s portrayal of the towering, masked antagonist Darth…
Happy birthday to Benoit Mandelbrot, the discoverer of fractals
He is known as the “father of fractals” for having discovered one of the most important patterns in nature. Source: https://www.livescience.com/benoit-mandelbrot-birthday-google-doodle.html
Microsoft Engineer Gets Nine Years For Stealing $10 Million From Microsoft
A former Microsoft software engineer from Ukraine has been sentenced to nine years in prison for stealing more than $10 million in store credit from Microsoft’s online store. Ars Technica reports: From 2016 to 2018, Volodymyr Kvashuk worked for Microsoft as a tester, placing mock online orders to make sure everything was working smoothly. The software automatically prevented shipment of physical…